~ Omar, with a bit of cheese

Whoops

Yesterday’s doughnuts were (technically speaking) a fail. A Big Fat Fail. Worth pursuing, though, as the flavour combination was sensational.

FWIW – I used a different dough recipe to last time, when they worked perfectly. This one used 50/50 bread and plain flours but I believe that other factors came into play too. Perhaps not the yeast, as last time my yeast was 3 weeks old and still worked well, this time it was only 2 weeks old. Probably my impatience.

The mix was very wet and I worked it only in the Kenwood, I did not hand finish it as I did last time. I included a few roughly chopped soft dried apricots in my recipe. After 2 hours, the dough had slackened and relaxed but had not risen really. All the same, I pursued the goal of doughnuts-for-tea, when what I should have done was to shove the dough in the ‘fridge and announce “Doughnuts tomorrow!”

I formed the balls and left them to double in size for an hour. Once again, they appeared sullen and refused to do as they should.

In the pan, they did puff up a bit – much more than I expected and sufficient to make me believe that all was indeed well in the end.

When fully cool, I elected to cut them open and sandwich them with my chocolate cream. I am glad that I did, as otherwise I would not have been able to use a teaspoon to gouge out the uncooked centres.

*blush*

After pratting about for a fair while, I piped in the filling , closed up my doughnuts and sank my gnashers into one… just to test, you know?

Mmmmffff. Delicious.

Good job I only made 6. Half of the dough went into a tea loaf, some of which I just had sliced and buttered for my breakfast. Dense and cakey, but not unpleasant. I had two slices. Looking forward to trying it toasted after I come home from After School Knitting Group. We are learning to purl today and I may well be in need of the sustenance after an hour of that!

I made a half quantity (the chooks are not laying well at this time of year) of crème patissière, using Delia’s basic recipe of milk (no cream) and five egg yolks, but only using two for the half quantity. I should have used three – but I had an eye on lunch on Friday…

I gave the cream a good whack of vanilla essence (I tend to guard my pods quite jealously) and whipped in a few squares of really good dark chocolate with the butter.

The cream was sumptuous – glossy and delicious, but could have done with being a little firmer for my purpose.

Anyway – Cardamom and Chocolate? Fit for the Gods.

I shall work my recipe up and perfect these. Next time, I’ll sandwich my doughnuts with a blob of apricot purée under the chocolate cream and leave the fruit out of the dough. There will also be a return to using 100% strong flour.

On another subject entirely – I have sossidges out of the freezer for lunch: ginger, garlic, chilli and lime sossidges. As Mr L said “Wot- all in the one sossidge?!” Yes, all in the one sossidge. That’s a lot of flavour (and they are delicious) but I am stumped to know how to serve them. It’s not barbecue weather. Mash seems wrong, so do chips. I lean towards rice but… fried sausage and rice? Maybe if I had some fresh coriander and spring onions to run through it. Hmm. Couscous? I have some capsicums that might pass as “fresh” if one doesn’t wear one’s glasses…

How about I fry the sausage, slice it, then toss it through some couscous with some chopped pepper and onion? That sounds pretty much OK. Now, the sauce?

Gill, I think that would be hideous with ginger,chilli,garlic and lime, don’t you? I often serve sausages with that tiny shell pasta that I got from App Foods, with garlic and mushroom sauce. But I can’t fancy it, nor can Steve, with garlic, chilli, ginger and lime…

Toad in the Hole is always appreciated but requires gravy and it’s the gravy combination with the sausage flavours that I cannot quite get hold of. I can’t even fancy mash with them. Appropriately seasoned potato wedges would work, with something simple like peas on the side… but what to dunk the wedges in? Lime-scented mayo? How I wish it was possible to just nip out and get a pot of soured cream!

Doughnut job could have been a whole lot better, if you ask me. But definitely a base for forward progress. There will be more – I think there is life in the oil yet before I have to dispose of it.